Swiss Super League: Before and After 12 Clubs

The old ten-club baseline

Before the format change, the Swiss top flight in this extract used a ten-club regular phase. From 2016 through 2022, every selected season contributed 180 completed regular-phase matches. That creates a clean seven-season baseline: 1,260 matches, 3,850 goals and a weighted rate of 3.06 goals per match.

The draw count across those seasons was 331, or 26.3% of the matches. The annual scoring rates ranged from 2.86 in 2020 to 3.25 in 2021. Even before the change, the league had meaningful variation, but the number of counted fixtures per season did not change.

The old rows are all regular-phase rows. Extra promotion or relegation entries appear in the wider fixture coverage but are not folded into this baseline because they do not represent the repeated league schedule being compared.

A bigger schedule, a lower rate

The Swiss Football League’s new model began in 2023/24 with 12 clubs, a 33-round first phase and a five-round split phase. In the counted Xtra-Stats coverage, those phases produce 228 matches per season: 198 in the first phase, 15 in the championship group and 15 in the relegation group.

That is 48 more matches than the old 180-match season, an increase of 26.7%. The scoring rate moved in the other direction. The 2023 counted phases produced 646 goals in 228 matches, or 2.83 per match; 2024 produced 679, or 2.98. Combined, the first two new-format seasons contain 1,325 goals in 456 matches, or 2.91.

The comparison is not a claim that adding clubs caused lower scoring. It says that the first two completed seasons under the new schedule have a lower weighted rate than the seven completed seasons before it. More seasons are required before the post-change figure can be treated as a stable era estimate.

The split phases are volatile

The new regular phase averaged 2.86 goals per match across 2023 and 2024. Its annual values were 2.87 and 2.85, remarkably close relative to the group phases. The 33-round first phase therefore carries most of the new-format sample and provides the steadier post-change reference.

The championship groups averaged 3.53 in the combined sample, but the two seasons were very different: 2.80 in 2023 and 4.27 in 2024. The relegation groups averaged 2.83, with 2.33 in 2023 and 3.33 in 2024. Each group contains only 15 matches per season, so one season contributes 30 observations to the two-year comparison.

The format changed the number of fixtures immediately; its scoring identity still needs more seasons.

Draws show the same caution. The new regular phase had 49 draws in 2023 and 52 in 2024. The championship groups had one and five; the relegation groups had five and four. Those counts produce a combined new-format draw rate of 25.4%, close to but slightly below the old 26.3% baseline.

Season by season after the change

2023 was the first completed season in the new-format rows. Its regular phase contained 569 goals in 198 matches, the championship group 42 in 15 and the relegation group 35 in 15. The group stages were both below the regular phase, at 2.80 and 2.33. The total season rate of 2.83 was therefore pulled down by the final groups.

2024 changed that picture. The regular phase remained close to the prior year at 565 goals and 2.85 per match, but the championship group rose to 64 goals in 15 matches, or 4.27. The relegation group rose to 50 goals, or 3.33. The total is 679 goals and 2.98 per match, still below the 3.06 old-format baseline.

This contrast is central to the article. The new regular phase looks relatively stable across two years; the small groups do not. A headline about the new 12-club format should therefore report the phase and the denominator instead of treating all 228 fixtures as if they had the same competitive setting.

The old period also had its own high and low: 2021 reached 3.25 goals per match, while 2020 fell to 2.86. The 2023 and 2024 new-format values sit between those old extremes at the total-season level, even though their phase composition is different.

The counted phases after the change

The 2023 season shows how the new schedule is assembled. The first phase contains 198 matches and 569 goals, or 2.87 per match. The championship group adds 15 matches and 42 goals, or 2.80. The relegation group adds another 15 and 35 goals, or 2.33. Together they produce 228 matches and 646 goals.

The 2024 season keeps the same match counts but changes the phase balance. The first phase contains 565 goals and 2.85 per match, almost identical to 2023. The championship group rises to 64 goals in 15 matches, and the relegation group to 50. The total is 679 goals and 2.98 per match.

The old rows are also worth reading individually. Scoring was 3.23 in 2016, 3.01 in 2017, 3.06 in 2018, 3.01 in 2019, 2.86 in 2020, 3.25 in 2021 and 2.97 in 2022. Draw rates ranged from 21.7% in 2017 and 2019 to 32.2% in 2022. The old format had variation, but not the same phase composition.

On a per-season basis, the new model adds 48 counted fixtures to the old baseline. The additional matches are not simply extra repetitions of the old phase: 30 are distributed across the two groups after the 33-round first phase. This is why the article reports both the all-counted rate and the regular-phase rate.

The two group phases also explain the provisional nature of the post-change result. Their combined sample is only 60 matches per season, compared with 198 in the first phase. In 2023 both groups were below the first phase; in 2024 both were above it. A longer run will show whether that contrast persists.

A format-aware reading

The format change alters the shape of the schedule before it alters any interpretation of goals. In the 2016–2022 rows, the regular phase contains 180 matches per season. From 2023, the regular phase contains 198 matches, followed by 15 Championship Round and 15 Relegation Round matches. Those group fixtures are kept separate because they are not interchangeable with the earlier 180-match regular phase.

The pooled old-format regular seasons produced 3,850 goals in 1,260 matches, or 3.06 per match, with a 26.3% draw rate. The new-format regular phase produced 1,134 goals in 396 matches, or 2.86 per match, with a 25.5% draw rate. Including the two groups gives 1,325 goals in 456 matches, or 2.91 per match. The denominator changes in both comparisons, so raw goals alone would be misleading.

The split phases also show why a two-season endpoint is not a complete format study. Championship Round scoring was 2.80 in 2023 and 4.27 in 2024; Relegation Round scoring was 2.33 and 3.33. Those swings come from only 15 matches per group per season. They are useful observations, but they should not be treated as stable league-wide rates.

The evidence supports a format-aware description: the new 12-club structure has a longer regular phase and a short two-group finish, and its observed scoring rate in the first two completed seasons is below the old regular-phase aggregate. It does not identify a causal effect of the format change.